Scheme Funding Summit returns for 2018 - helping trustees and senior pension decision-makers navigate these potentially choppy waters, and look at the different avenues for schemes to close the £623bn funding gap.

So far, DC plans have largely been focused on the onset of auto-enrolment and changes to the regulatory framework - be it the ‘charge cap,' ‘pension freedoms' or consultations around ‘value for money', says Annabel Tonry, Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM).

In 2015 George Osborne, then the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, decided that those age over 55 could take much more of their pension in cash. This has since opened up a range of possibilities for DC scheme members in the world of pensions.

Agency mulls scheme property plan

UK - Pension funds could become investors in residential rental housing under a governmental agency plan to encourage schemes to support builders in the UK.

The Homes and Communities Agency is considering launching a private rented sector initiative to get pension schemes and other investors to enter the private rented sector on a large scale for the first time - a move it hopes will expand the private rented sector.

It launched an "expression of interest" process for the new initiative today and is talking to investors about the scheme.

A Legal and General spokesperson confirmed its pension department had been in talks with the HCA over the initiative.

The British Property Federation - which has campaigned over the last two years to shift housing policy towards rental - said it believed a total of eight organisations have been in talks with the HCA over building rented accommodation.

It said these were understood to include "one or two big name pension funds".

BPF director for finance Peter Cosmetatos said: "One positive to emerge from the current downturn is that the fall in property prices has made the yields offered by residential property, which are typically modest, much more attractive.

"There is a rare opportunity at this point in the cycle for institutional investors to invest in an asset class that provides an excellent hedge against inflation at a good price."

The HCA is brokering the expressions of interest exercise with property agent DTZ Consulting. Berwin Leighton Paisner are the lawyers acting for the HCA.

DTZ Consulting director Chris Balch said: "The success of the professional rented sector will depend on investor support, but with the political support we now have there is every possibility that we can start to build a home rental market to match our European and American neighbours."

Latest stories

Partner Insight: In recent years, pensions administrators have seen scheme member engagement increase significantly. The advent of Pensions Freedoms in 2015 and the increased choices faced by members have led to a sea-change in the levels and types of...